In classical conditioning, the term that describes the learned signal after pairing is the

• A. Unconditioned stimulus
• B. Conditioned stimulus
• C. Neutral stimulus
• D. Unconditioned response

Answer: (B)

In classical conditioning, a neutral signal becomes meaningful when it’s paired with something that naturally triggers a response. After enough pairings, that signal itself comes to predict the unconditioned event, so it’s called the conditioned stimulus. For example, the bell starts off neutral, but when it’s paired with food (the unconditioned stimulus), the bell alone eventually signals the food and can elicit a learned response. The unconditioned stimulus is the food, the unconditioned response is the natural drooling to food, and the neutral stimulus is the bell before conditioning.